


learning not to be alone

by sunsetdawn20



Category: Unter Uns
Genre: Fluff and Angst, M/M, Surprise Party, nothing ever goes as planned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-02
Updated: 2018-04-02
Packaged: 2019-04-17 06:57:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14183421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunsetdawn20/pseuds/sunsetdawn20
Summary: The obligatory birthday surprises gone wrong fic but what if Ringo genuinely doesn't expect anyone to remember it's his birthday and just treats it like any other day and Easy is getting more and more frustrated.





	learning not to be alone

Easy wakes early to the warmth of sunshine and the sound of birds. His first instinct is to snuggle up to Ringo and bask in the glow of this Spring morning together, but he fights the urge and forces his eyes open. A smile settles on his face as he thinks of the plans he has for Ringo’s birthday: the romantic breakfast, the walk in the afternoon to give the others time to prepare for the surprise party. All the presents are already hidden in KayC’s old room and even though he had to spend the last few days trying to convince too many of their friends that Ringo definitely deserves a surprise party planned with care, Easy is still quite please how everything has been coming together.

Now all he has to hope for is Ringo staying asleep while he sets up the breakfast in the living room. Easy carefully turns over, then frowns. The bed next to him is empty, Ringo must already be up.

Easy gets out of bed, puts on a shirt and walks out into the living room.

“Ringo?” he calls out.

“Hey,” Ringo responds coming out of the bathroom. He’s already dressed for a run and is smiling when he leans in to brush his lips against Easy’s. “Didn’t mean to wake you.”

“You’re going for a run,” Easy says.

“Don’t want to waste the sunshine,” Ringo shrugs and puts on his jacket. “I’ll be back in an hour.”

After a pang of disappointment Easy reminds himself that this way he has time to prepare the planned breakfast. He watches Ringo select a playlist on his player and somehow even that trivial sight fills him with fondness. Ringo glances up and sees him staring.

“What?”

Easy smiles. “Nothing.”

Ringo’s expression softens and he steps closer to kiss Easy properly this time. He has a soft smile on his lips when he pulls back. “Don’t wait with breakfast. I already ate.”

He puts the earbuds in and is out the door before Easy could say anything.

\---

Things don’t go quite as planned later either. Bambi texts him that him and Sina might be late to the party because they both have work to catch up on during the holiday. There might also be some issue with the birthday cake based on how awkward Paco got when Easy wanted to see it – but Easy decided that ignorance is bliss and all he can do is hope that him and Elli will fix whatever went hilariously wrong this time by tonight.

And then, of course, Tobias called from LA just when Easy wanted to leave for that romantic walk with Ringo (picnic included, to make up for the missed breakfast) and Easy didn’t have the heart to tell him to call back later. Tobias was mopey and tired but it seemed like he was making actual progress with working things out with KayC. At least they seem to be talking like adults now, so that’s something. By the time the call was over, Easy was itching to get out of the house. He was getting nervous Ringo might think he forgot his birthday.

But just as they were putting their clothes on he started hearing the first drops of rain on the window.

“Stop pouting,” Ringo says softly and sits down next to Easy on the sofa. “We can do whatever you planned some other time. It makes no difference.”

Easy can’t tell if Ringo is being serious or is just trying to act cool to mask his disappointment.

“Let’s watch something,” Ringo says, reaching for his laptop. “There are a few movies I haven’t had time to watch yet.”

Easy shrugs. He’s starting to feel like this whole carefully planned birthday is slipping through his fingers, but he does rather like the idea of watching a movie snuggled up to Ringo while the rain outside is tapping on the glass. It’s a cosy image that makes Easy smile.

“Yeah, ok,” he says and Ringo seems pleased to have put Easy in a better mood.

\---

Half an hour into the movie, Stinker starts whimpering by Tobias’ bedroom door and Easy has to get up to give him some love and attention.

They manage to watch another twenty minutes when Ringo gets a call from Kira and goes into Easy’s room to take it. Easy is still not sure how much Kira knows about what happened between them, and he certainly gets why Ringo is finding it hard to talk about it, so he’d never push but he still hopes that soon Ringo will feel confident enough in their relationship to tell Kira all about it.

“How is she?” Easy asks when Ringo comes back.

“Good. Busy,” Ringo shrugs. “She’s got a crush on some hot barista at her favourite coffee shop and somehow seemed to think I needed to know about that.”

His tone is dripping with annoyance but there’s fondness in it too, Easy can tell. Ringo settles back on the sofa next to him and they continue watching the movie. It’s about seven minutes later Ringo says:

“We could visit her in the summer.” He says it quietly, tentatively, as if he’s not sure he’s supposed to think that far ahead and Easy’s heart bursts with love for him. He can feel a wide smile transforming his face and he shifts a little closer to Ringo when he says:

“I’d like that.”

Ringo just nods, but Easy can see a glow in his eyes and Easy finds it increasingly hard to focus on the movie.

Ten minutes later his phone buzzes and there’s a text from Paco: _Stall_. Easy sighs. Will anything ever go as planned around here?

\---

“Should we order something or do you want me to cook?” Ringo asks later, closing the fridge door. It’s already 7pm and the party was already supposed to be mostly set up, but Easy keeps getting texts from Paco that sound increasingly desperate and he’s not sure he even wants to know what is going on in the other apartment.

Easy shrugs, leans against the kitchen counter. “Or we could go over later and see what Elli made.”

Ringo smirks. “Well this is quite an insight into how you and Tobias end up stealing all our food.”

Easy laughs. He notices the softening of Ringo’s features and a moment later Ringo is coming closer and kissing him with an intensity Easy didn’t quite anticipate. He loves this, loves how different each kiss from Ringo tastes. Ringo is pushing him against the kitchen counter and Easy’s hands find their way to Ringo’s hips.

“I want you,” Ringo whispers hotly against Easy’s mouth and it drives a shiver through Easy. He doesn’t think he’ll ever get enough of Ringo actually talking about what he wants, how he feels.

Just then Easy’s phone rings three times, then goes quiet – the agreed sign that the party is set up and they can go. Easy bites back a groan and gently pushes at Ringo’s chest.

“We, erm, we should go and see if Elli made dinner, then,” he says.

Ringo raises an eyebrow. “It’s not food I want in my mouth right now,” he says in a low voice and tries to lean forward again, but Easy turns his head away with a frustrated groan. Ringo frowns.

“You’d really rather have dinner with them than be with me?” There’s a hint of hurt in his voice and Easy quickly shakes his head, slides a hand up the side of Ringo’s neck, gently, apologetically brushes their lips together.

“Of course not,” he says.

“Then stay,” Ringo says in a low voice and pulls Easy flush against his body. Easy can feel all the want radiating off Ringo’s body, can feel how hard he is and it makes him curse.

“Fuck, Ringo, stop making it so hard to throw you a party.”

Ringo pulls back, his frown deepening. “What party?”

“Well, currently most of our friends are at your place, waiting to surprise you. So you’d better act surprised,” Easy laughs and shrugs. He feels bad for having fucked this up, but the look on Ringo’s face makes him wonder if maybe it’s not such a bad thing after all. It’s not just surprise he sees there but genuine shock and disbelief and Easy starts wondering if maybe a surprise party wasn’t the best idea, after all.

“Why would you throw me a party?” Ringo asks.

“Well, it’s your birthday,” Easy says and can’t quite understand why Ringo is so baffled.

“Yes. But…”

“I’m not sure how they do it on planet-Ringo, but here on Earth surprise birthday parties are kind of the tradition,” Easy says with a grin, but Ringo doesn’t even smile just takes a step backwards and lets his hands drop.

“I didn’t think you’d even know when my birthday is.”

Easy frowns. “Come on, I’ve known you for years.”

“You hated me for years,” Ringo corrects and his voice has a slight edge to it that hasn’t been directed at Easy in a very long time.

“Ringo,” Easy says softly and steps closer. “If you don’t want the party, I’ll just call it off. I just thought you’d like it…”

“No, sorry, of course I want it, just…” Ringo shrugs. “I just really didn’t expect it.”

“If it helps, I’ve been really crap at putting all my plans into reality today,” Easy smiles. “There was supposed to be a romantic breakfast and-“

“The walk.”

Easy shrugs. “Come on,” he says. “There’s booze and cake upstairs. Well, there’s either a cake or a very elaborate story why there isn’t one. Either way, it should be fun.”

\---

In the end it turns out better than Easy expected. Everybody seems to have fun, and even though there’s no cake, there’s lots of ice cream and he figures that’s good enough. After his initial shock Ringo loosens up fast and he laughs loudly when Paco tells him the story of how his birthday cake met its untimely death.

Later, during a quieter moment of the party, Ringo comes up behind him as he’s getting another beer from the fridge.

“Thank you,” he says softly. “This is really nice.”

Easy smiles and kisses the corner of Ringo’s lips. “Happy birthday.”

\---

There’s a thought that doesn’t let him go, though. And later, as they’re lying in his bed together, it keeps him awake. He presses a gentle kiss against the back of Ringo’s neck.

“You really expected us not to celebrate your birthday?” he asks quietly.

Ringo shrugs. “I haven’t exactly been anybody’s favourite person lately.”

Easy shifts closer, pressing his chest to Ringo’s back to convey without words how far they are from that place right now. Ringo entwines their fingers and presses their joined hands against his chest.

“It really would have been no big deal,” he says and sounds like he means it and like he finds it amusing Easy thinks differently. “Kira called. And you were with me. I didn’t need anything else.”

“But birthdays are the days when your friends show you how much you matter to them. That’s important.”

Ringo is quiet at that. Too quiet all of a sudden, and his body feels tense against Easy. And that’s when it truly hits Easy what all this is about.

“Ringo,” he says quietly. “You do matter. You know that, right?”

Ringo makes a low, dismissive sound and Easy wraps himself even tighter around him. He whispers against Ringo’s skin:

“You matter to me.”

For a long time there is no response, but eventually Ringo tightens his hold on Easy’s hand and nods tentatively.


End file.
